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Dumb. That’s the way to describe the political response of Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership candidates to the new Health and Physical Education Curriculum. Social wedge issues have failed the party before and opposing a modern sex ed curriculum is setting the party up for failure again.

By stepping on this open land mine, they have succeeded in knocking the Sudbury bribery scandal and the three OPP investigations of this government off the front pages.

For all the talk about focusing education on English, math and science, the Party needs to read the numbers and stop this failed experiment. Ninety per cent of Ontarians agree it is time to update the sex ed curriculum. In an electoral system, 90 per cent trumps 10 per cent every time.

Leading the way down this failed path is MPP Monte McNaughton. He has staked his leadership bid on homophobic innuendo and pandering to Ontario’s dwindling socially regressive population. His fixation with this issue is awkward to watch and hardly the actions of someone aspiring to be Premier.

Meanwhile, Barrie MP Patrick Brown talks a good game about emulating Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s political success in Ontario, but shows little evidence of learning lessons from Harper’s approach to social issues. Respecting people of faith is one thing, but taking policy cues from the pulpit or minbar is a recipe for electoral disaster.

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Let’s make something clear. Ontario’s sex ed curriculum is as old as Google itself, dating back to 1998. There was no Facebook, sexting, or Snapchat the last time the curriculum was revised. Back then, the hysteria surrounding the AIDS crisis had just passed and same-sex marriage was an idea amongst fanciful radicals.

Social issues have proven to be losing issues for Canadian conservative parties. In 2005 Paul Martin’s attack ads on abortion robbed Stephen Harper of a majority by casting enough doubt about his social agenda. In 2007 Ontarians spoke clearly in rejecting more religion in our schools.

In 2011, as a writer in Tim Hudak’s war room, I saw first-hand how pandering to a dwindling demographic dooms us to electoral failure. Using demagogic language against foreign workers and distributing a homophobic flyer not only backfired in the public realm, it divided those behind the scenes working tirelessly around the clock in the final days of that election.

These retrograde actions do not appeal to mainstream Ontario. Yet these issues get drudged up every time. It is dumb politics. In the context of a leadership campaign, maybe it’s good for a few hundred more memberships. But to what cost?

If the Ontario PC Party is to succeed in 2018, caucus would be wise to focus less on sex ed and open a history book to learn from lessons past. The Party isn’t devoid of idea generation. Blue Skies Ontario hosted two successful idea incubators in Toronto and Ottawa this past fall. The event used the design thinking process to think of new approaches for Ontario’s centre-right. The young and mid-career professionals who attended spoke of the need to propel the movement forward and to broaden its appeal in urban Ontario.

This leadership race has failed to attract much attention from the broader public. The Party is at risk of becoming a permanent shadow of its former self. If we look at successful Conservatives in recent times, Ontario PCs would do well to examine the electorally successful playbooks of Stephen Harper or Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall to build a path forward. Economic competence, sound governance, and broad appeal have underpinned their success. It is how conservatives win elections. It is the only way the PCs can win in 2018.

Of those paying attention, ideologically indifferent Ontarians are shaking their heads. All the while, Ontario PC leadership candidates are doing their darnedest to present themselves as caricatures of the conservatives lampooned on U.S. late-night talk shows. Surely the only person with cause to smile this week is Premier Kathleen Wynne. Sadly this is no laughing matter.

Jamie Ellerton is the Principal at Conaptus Ltd. and was the 2014 Ontario PC candidate for Parkdale–High Park.

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